The Prince of the Forest
by insertcleverandwittytitlehere
Summary: James and Lily have a date, but *someone* is a little late. For good reason, of course.


**A/N:** This is Beater 2 of the Chudley Cannons checking in for Round 9 of the QLFC.

 **Prompts:** Disney movie: Bambi, 2. (word) clumsy, 8. (word) gamble, 14. (object) broken wand

 **Word count (before A/N):** 1,405 Words

 **I am not J.K. These are not my characters. Enjoy!**

* * *

"Bollocks."

James held his wand directly in front of his nose, going slightly cross-eyed in the process. The top half hung limp by a sliver of wood, like a splinter. He had just Apperated to the woods surrounding Lily's parents' home, but he had landed on an upraised tree root. James fell down upon landing, throwing his hands up to embrace his fall. Which was rather stupid, seeing that his wand was clutched in his right hand.

And now it was broken.

"Damn," he muttered, carefully pocketing the ash-and-heartstring stick into his pocket. Ollivander was getting a wee bit annoyed with James for his _many_ visits to the store. (Last time—not even a week ago—James accidentally went through the front window. Not by testing a wand either; Sirius was being… well, not serious. Plus, after the eighth replacement wand, Ollivander threatened to get Ministry officials involved for "wand maltreatment.")

Now, standing in the forest, James had no way of _leaving_ Lily's unless he owled his parents (who would lecture him on responsibility), Sirius (who would mock him relentlessly), or Remus (that might be the best option, really). James looked around, wondering how he could be clumsy enough to destroy yet another wand, when a low growl caught his attention.

The sun set nearly an hour before, casting the forest floor in almost complete darkness, and a cool breeze made the hair on the base of James's neck stand on end. He was defenseless and nameless—he didn't have any identification on him.

Just a broken wand.

Another growl emanated from his right. Taking stock, James deduced he could do one of two things: first, walk the twelve minutes to Lily's through the woods and hope whatever was growling at him wouldn't try to come after him, or, second, investigate the animal and, upon seeing James was friendly, hope it wouldn't come after him.

Without a wand, any decision was a gamble, but that didn't stop James from taking a step toward the noise. It growled again, low and guttural, like a cornered cat.

James took a deep breath, then, slowly, let himself transform into a stag. He figured any animal of the forest would feel better if there weren't any humans around. Afterall, the thing probably scaring the beast was that a human _did_ just pop out of nowhere.

Slowly, James, in stag form, approached the sound. As he got closer, James could hear the animal shifting. A bed of flowers started to rustle, the petals shaking slightly. With his nose, James began to push the flowers around.

Suddenly, he pulled back. Merlin, that smell!

A small black-and-white face poked through the flowers. It cocked its head to the side, staring intently at James, no doubt wondering how there was a scary, awful human one second and a large stag the next.

The skunk pushed himself out of the flower bed, scurrying underneath James, who, in turn, was standing as still as possible. Worried he would be sprayed at any moment, James's brain started thinking up a reasonable explanation for smelling like skunk. Lily would already laugh at him for the ten-millionth broken wand. He didn't want to explain he was dumb enough to stick his nose quite literally into a skunk's home, too.

But his worry was for nothing, because the flower-skunk simply rubbed against his hind legs and sat staring up at him.

James, knowing it was a probably a good moment to leave, started to walk in the direction of Lily's house. Once he was out of spray-shot of the skunk, he would transform back into human form.

So, after walking a few meters due south, James looked behind him to make sure the skunk was a safe distance away. Alas, the skunk was nowhere to be seen.

James turned around, his eye searching the forest floor. One benefit of being an animagus was the added bonus of having the night vision stags had. It wasn't perfect, but James knew that his human eyes wouldn't have been able to pick up the distinct outline of the flower-skunk standing beside him.

Was he following James?

Testing that theory, James walked another few meters. Looking behind him proved the absence of his smelly friend. But, looking below him, James saw that Flower—the name James picked for the skunk—was most certainly tailing him.

He could run, James thought. A stag would outrun a skunk in seconds. But there was something so unbelievably funny about being followed by this creature that James wanted to see how far it would go. So, with his companion by his side, James started making his way to Lily's.

Not even five minutes later, James felt a strange weight land on his antlers. A tawny owl, one he didn't recognize as any of his friends'. The bird didn't have a letter or package with him either, so James kept his pace. Flower didn't seem phased by the added friend, and the two _should_ have been natural enemies.

Smiling, James continued on his quest.

* * *

Something strange was happening. The skunk—the skunk James could accept. The owl, merely a coincidence. But now?

Now, James's little animal parade was full. Three bunny rabbits, six more birds, a squirrel, two chipmunks, and a very fat duck surrounded him. He had no idea how it even happened. It was like all the critters in the forest saw Flower following along and thought what a brilliant idea it was to follow the stag.

The edge of the trees was upon them. James could tell, because there was less foliage and he could hear the cars driving along the country roads in the distance.

Also, one gorgeous redhead was standing outside her house, peering down the path toward him.

James looked around, hoping the animals would disperse at the sight of her, but no such luck. For some reason, they wanted to be near him.

A family of field mice skittered to a halt in front of the animal train. Then they too joined in the fun. Doing another one over of his forest friends, James stepped out into the moonlight.

"James?" Lily spotted him. She was maybe two yards away from him. When he turned to her, he could see she was starting to laugh. "What—what is going on?"

If a stag could shrug, then James would have.

"You're a regular prince of the forest, aren't you?" she snorted. The owl on James's antlers hooted, long and low. Lily outright laughed. "Oh, sorry, sorry. The _great_ prince of the forest."

James watched as his beautiful girlfriend clutched at her sides. The animals around him seem unfazed. Lily kept chortling.

Then, the porch light from Lily's house turned on, and the strange magic was lost. The animals scattered, all except for Flower, James's original follower. Lily sighed, approaching James slowly.

"You should probably turn back to a human, silly," she patted his head when she reached him. "Mum and dad may accept magic, but this is a bit much, I think."

James shook his head, letting her know he would most certainly change back now that he was free of his parade. Lily began to take a few steps back, when she started laughing again. James looked up at her, catching the amusement in her eyes.

"I can't believe I'm in love with a man who's also a deer," she said. Then her eyes grew wide, her laughter fading from her lips. They stood like that, James as a stag and Lily in shock, because did she just say the "l" word?!

Without hesitating, James transformed back into himself, throwing his arms around Lily. He kissed her hard, holding her firm against him, feeling every precious inch of her body. Then, "I love you, too."

Lily's big green eyes looked up into James's, but instead of saying those wonderful words again, she screamed.

In an instant, James felt his left side become drenched. Lily covered her face, burying it into James's chest, as Flower doused them. "No!"

"What did you do?"

"Nothing!"

When the skunk was finished, it slinked back into the night, leaving the pair standing beneath the artificial porch light. Lily slowly raised her head, again laughing. "We stink!"

James joined in. "So much for being a prince, then, huh?"

"Hmm," Lily, still smiling, pursed her lips, "I like wizards better."

"Love wizards, you mean," James teased.

"No," she kissed him. "I _like_ wizards. I love you"


End file.
